as in serfdom
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Recent Examples of peonage
Its darkest depths -- the rise of racial terrorism, convict leasing, debt peonage and more -- are only now being reassessed by millions of Americans whose racial awakening came through the crucible of Floyd's murder and the demonstrations that followed.
—
Peniel E. Joseph, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021
Many drivers stick around for the full year to avoid those fees, enduring what amounts to debt peonage.
—Andrew Kay, WIRED, 17 Jan. 2023
Redemptionists stymied Black progress toward economic independence through sharecropping and a debt peonage system that encumbered Black farmers with overwhelming financial burdens.
—Time, 15 Sep. 2022
For many years, prosecutions based on alleged violations of the 13th Amendment — passed in 1865 to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude — focused on peonage cases, the use of financial debt as a loophole to enslave workers.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 July 2022
See All Example Sentences for peonage
Peniel E. Joseph, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021
Many drivers stick around for the full year to avoid those fees, enduring what amounts to debt peonage.
—Andrew Kay, WIRED, 17 Jan. 2023
Redemptionists stymied Black progress toward economic independence through sharecropping and a debt peonage system that encumbered Black farmers with overwhelming financial burdens.
—Time, 15 Sep. 2022
For many years, prosecutions based on alleged violations of the 13th Amendment — passed in 1865 to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude — focused on peonage cases, the use of financial debt as a loophole to enslave workers.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 July 2022
See All Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
Noun
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The peasants’ goal was to overturn serfdom and create a fairer society grounded on the Christian Bible.—
Michael Bruening,
The Conversation,
25 Feb. 2025
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Russian officers still treated their peasant soldiers as little better than serfs (and serfdom would not be abolished in Russia for another 50 years).—
Antony Beevor,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Dec. 2022
Noun
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These were the years in which capitalism shed its pitiless light on the absurd British soul, with its deep striations of caste and station, its postcolonial taint, most of all its perverted emotional core, full of love and loathing for its own extremes of domination and servitude.—
Rachel Cusk,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Feb. 2025
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Advertisement California Nevada just banned ‘slavery and involuntary servitude’ in prisons.—
Anabel Sosa,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Jan. 2025
Noun
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But opposition to the expansion of slavery was the unifying principle of the young Republican Party.—
Jeffrey Schmitt,
The Conversation,
28 Feb. 2025
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Until right before the Civil War, the politics of statehood closely tracked the nation's antebellum divide over slavery.—
Geoffrey Skelley,
ABC News,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Passing for White to Escape Slavery Passing for white was an intentional strategy that enslaved people used to free themselves from bondage.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
20 Feb. 2025
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By the late 17th century, rulers had issued further decrees and orders urging officials in Spanish America to liberate Indigenous peoples still in bondage.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA TODAY,
6 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Art critic Eva Diaz, writing for ArtReview, says that Of the ‘creative’ pursuits, architecture is among the most dependent on big piles of capital in order to get its work off the ground: patronage is a constitutive yoke of the profession.—
Matt Shaw,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025
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Instead of a traditional wheel, the Filante Record 2025 has a sci-fi-style yoke with protruding handles on each side that use steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems to control steering, stopping, and acceleration.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
6 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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